Compositions, kits and methods for detection of

1. A method for specifically detecting a Campylobacter target nucleic acid in a sample comprising the steps of:

(a) obtaining a sample suspected of containing at least a Campylobacter target nucleic acid;

(b) contacting said sample with at least two amplification oligomers that stably hybridize to a C. jejuni target nucleic acid and a C. coli , a C. lari or a C. coli and a C. lari target nucleic acid, wherein a first of said amplification oligomers comprises a target hybridizing sequence that is 15 to 45 nucleotides in length and is configured to target a sequence in a region of a Campylobacter 16S rRNA gene corresponding to nucleotides 108 to 150 of GenBank Accession No.: AF393202.1, gi:20378208 and wherein a second of said amplification oligomers comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 7;

(c) performing an in vitro nucleic acid amplification reaction wherein any of a C. jejuni target nucleic acid, a C. coli target nucleic acid and a C. lari target nucleic acid present in said sample is used as a template for generating an amplification product; and

(d) performing a nucleic acid detection reaction that detects said amplification product to determine whether a Campylobacter target nucleic acid was present in said sample.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said in vitro nucleic acid amplification reaction is a transcription mediated amplification reaction, a strand displacement reaction or a polymerase chain reaction.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said first of said amplification oligomers comprises a target hybridizing sequence configured to target a sequence in a region of a Campylobacter 16S rRNA gene selected from the group consisting of: a region corresponding to nucleotides 115 to 150 of GenBank Accession No.: AF393202.1, gi:20378208; a region corresponding to nucleotides 115 to 135 of GenBank Accession No.: AF393202.1, gi:20378208; and a region corresponding to nucleotides 125 to 150 of GenBank Accession No.: AF393202.1, gi:20378208.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said first of said amplification oligomers comprises SEQ ID NO:26.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said first of said amplification oligomers is a promoter based amplification oligomer further comprising a 5′ promoter sequence.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein step (b) further comprises contacting said sample with a blocker oligomer.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said nucleic acid detection reaction comprises contacting said amplification product with a detection probe oligomer configured to hybridize to a portion of said amplification product.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said detection is real-time detection.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein said detection oligomer consists essentially of SEQ ID NO:67.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said nucleic acid detection reaction comprises contacting said amplification product with a detection probe oligomer consisting of SEQ ID NO:67.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein said first amplification oligomer is SEQ ID NO:26.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of contacting said sample suspected of containing a Campylobacter target nucleic acid with a target capture oligomer.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein said sample further contains nucleic acid from one or more bacteria closely related to C. jejuni; C. coli , or C. lari and said target nucleic acid is specifically detected in said sample.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein said one or more bacteria is at least one of: C. Fetus , ssp. fetus, C. fetus ssp venerealis, C. upsaliensis, E. coli, C. fecalis, S. enteridis, H. pylori, E. vulnaris, E. hermannii, Enterobacter cloacae, Edwardsiella hoshinae, P. miribalis, Citrobacter brakii, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Shigella flexneri, Aeromonas hydrophila , and A. butzleri.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein at step (c) said target nucleic acid is specifically amplified.